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ANĀLAYO
Numata Centre for Buddhist Studies, Hamburg
Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts, Taiwan
Abstract
In this paper I explore the significance of the set of nine or twelve
aṅgas of texts as reflected in early Buddhist discourse literature and
in relation to the division of texts into āgamas or nikāyas.
Key Words
Āgama, Aṅga, Early Buddhism, Nikāya, Oral Transmission
Alternatively, the passage in question may take up the need for such
learned elders to give teachings. 3
This does not mean, however, that the expression āgatāgama is only
attested in Pāli discourses. Two discourses in the Madhyama-āgama
have the same phrase as part of a description of a learned monk. In
these two cases, the Pāli counterparts do not have the corresponding
expression.9
MĀ 85 at T I 561b27, b28, c1, and c2: 諳阿含. The corresponding passage in the
11
parallel MN 113 at MN III 39,18+31 has two separate cases, where a monk could
be “learned”, bahussuto, or else an “upholder of the Vinaya”, vinayadharo, none
of which involves a reference to āgama.
12 ANĀLAYO
12 Barua 1923: 359 comments that “in the Pāli discourses, ascribed to the
Buddha himself, the expression Āgama is often met with, no doubt in the sense of
a floating body of Buddhist literary traditions.”
13 Bloch 1950: 123,29, Girnār: bahusrutā ca assu kallāṇāgamā ca, Kālsī:
bahuṣṣuta cā kayyānāgā ca, Ṣāhbāzgarhī: bahuśruta ca kalaṇagama ca, Mānsehrā:
bahuśruta ca kayaṇagama ca.
Vavahāra 1.35, Schubring 1918: 15,4+6; cf. also Caillat 1965: 50.
14
They further report that the resultant textual material was divided
into groups, presumably to facilitate oral transmission, by collecting
long discourses and discourses of middle length into corresponding
āgamas; and short discourses were further separated into those
assembled according to topic and those assembled according to a
numerical principle (a discourse can discuss one or more items and
can accordingly be allocated to the Ones, the Twos, the Threes etc.).
16
For a survey of the four āgamas cf. Anālayo 2015a.
T 1425 at T XXII 491c16 ( another sequence can be found in a different
17
context in T 1425 at T XXII 492c18, which lists the Vinaya, the Abhidharma, and
then the Saṃyukta-āgama, the Ekottarika-āgama, the Madhyama-āgama, and the
Dīrgha-āgama ) and T 1421 at T XXII 191a24.
18 The account of the first saṅgīti in the Theravāda Vinaya, Vin II 287,16, only
mentions the Brahmajāla (DN 1) and the Sāmaññaphala (DN 2) as the first two
discourses recited and thus does not explicitly indicate the order of the four
collections.
14 ANĀLAYO
having only the last two in the opposite order.19 These four traditions
thus agree on beginning with the long discourses, followed by those
of middle length and then the shorter discourses.
Not only the Vinaya accounts of the first saṅgīti differ in their
usage of āgama or nikāya, but also accounts of the first saṅgīti in
the Samantapāsādika and its Chinese counterpart differ. The Pāli
version’s reference the “four nikāyas” (as distinct from the fifth) has
as its equivalent “the four āgamas” in the Chinese counterpart. 25
22 Tournier 2014: 25 note 95 notes that “among the southern Mahāsāṅghika sub-
schools, which transmitted a canon in Prakrit, there is epigraphical evidence that
at least the Aparamahāvinaseliyas also called the divisions of their Sūtrapiṭaka
nikāya.”
23
Vin II 287,27 speaks of the recitation of the pañca nikāye.
24
For the classic study on the topic cf. Lamotte 1956.
Sp I 16,14: cattāro nikāye and T 1462 at TXXIV 675b22: 四阿鋡, translated in
25
Bapat and Hirakawa 1970: 9; a difference already noted by Lamotte 1958: 167.
Heirman 2004: 385 comments that “when the translator adapted the text to the
Chinese environment, he hereby translated all five nikāyas as āgama.” The usage
of the term āgama nevertheless continues in Pāli commentarial literature. Thus,
e.g., Vism 442,30 defines knowledge of āgama to be mastery the teachings of the
Buddha, be it only the Chapter on Similes ( the third chapter in the Majjhima-
nikāya ), and Mp II 189,17 equates the nikāyas with the āgamas and concludes that
āgatāgama refers to mastery of one of these.
16 ANĀLAYO
26 According to Przyluski 1926: 341, the use of the expression sutta in the
context of the aṅgas has the specific sense of an exposition that begins with
an enumeration of a particular item, “un sūtra était un sermon commençant
par un exposé numérique” ( e.g., “there are four things … what are the four”,
etc. ). Ñāṇaponika 1977: 13f explains that sutta in its Buddhist usage refers to a
presentation of the Dharma that is internally connected by a thread, as it were,
“eine zusammenhängende Lehrdarstellung … durch die sich ein gemeinsamer
Faden hindurchzieht.” The need to ‘string together’ material for recitation also
emerges from a reference to the nine aṅgas in Vin III 8,7, according to which the
teachings of former Buddhas who did not give much instructions in terms of the
nine aṅgas were quickly lost, comparable to flowers not held together by a string;
for a survey of publications relevant to the alternative explanation that derives
sutta from su + ukta, “well spoken”, cf. Anālayo 2011a: 150 note 22.
27 Jayawickrama 1959: 12 comments that “geyya (from √gai gāyati, to sing),
seems to represent the ākhyāna-type containing stanzas punctuated with narrative
prose.” According to Mayeda 1964: 24, geyya “is not, however, a simple
juxtaposition of prose and verse. The prose section which comes first is repeated
once again in the verse section which follows. This repetition of similar contents
is the key point of geyya”; cf. also Burnouf 1844/1876: 47.
28
For a detailed discussion of this term cf. Anālayo 2008b.
ĀGAMA AND AṄGA IN THE EARLY BUDDHIST ORAL TRADITION 17
• quotes (itivuttaka),
• birth stories ( jātaka),
• marvels (abbhutadhamma),
• answers to questions [ between disciples] (vedalla). 29
29 Karashima 2015: 136 explains that “the most original form … could have
been *vedulla, a Middle Indic form corresponding to vaitulya (> vetulla >
*vedulla), which might mean ‘not’ (vi) ‘of the same kind’ (tulya, MW, s.v.), i.e.
‘unusual, irregular’. Scriptures consisting of repeated questions and answers, not
always between the Buddha and another person, but rather between two disciples,
might have been labelled as *vedulla, because they were ‘unusual, irregular’. This
form presumably changed in the Pāli tradition to vedalla.”
30 Lamotte 1956: 263 note 2 explains that this twelve-fold presentation prevails
in the Āgamas, in the Chinese Vinayas ( except for the Mahāsāṅghika Vinaya),
in the main treatises of the Sarvāstivāda, Sautrāntika, Vaibhāṣika and Yogācāra
schools, and in most Mahāyāna sūtras. For studies of the listing of twelve cf., e.g.,
Hirakawa 1963: 61–65, Lamotte 1980: 2281–2305, and Nattier 2004.
31
Cf. the survey provided in table form in Mayeda 1964 and Skilling 2013: 157.
32
Anālayo 2009.
18 ANĀLAYO
34 Skilling 2013: 88 explains that in the Ceylonese chronicles and later texts
“Vetulla in Vetullavāda is used only negatively for unacceptable ideas or theories,
in connection with doctrinal controversies that arose from the third to the second
centuries BCE onwards.”
35 For a more detailed discussion cf. Anālayo 2007; for other aspects of the early
Buddhist oral tradition cf. Anālayo 2014 and 2015b.
36 An example to illustrate this would be a listing in MN 76 at MN I 513,23 which
proceeds as follow: rājakathaṃ, corakathaṃ, mahāmattakathaṃ, senākathaṃ,
bhayakathaṃ, yuddhakathaṃ, annakathaṃ, pānakathaṃ, vatthakathaṃ, sayana-
kathaṃ, mālākathaṃ, gandhakathaṃ, ñātikathaṃ, yānakathaṃ, gāmakathaṃ,
nigamakathaṃ, nagarakathaṃ, janapadakathaṃ, itthikathaṃ, sūrakathaṃ,
visikhākathaṃ, kumbaṭṭhānakathaṃ, pubbapetakathaṃ. The listing seems to
involve the following subgroups as themes for talk: powerful/dangerous men:
“kings, robbers, ministers”, war: “armies, dangers, battles”, requisites: “food,
drink, clothing, beds”, household life: “garlands, perfumes, relatives, vehicles”,
localities: “villages, towns, cities, counties”, others: “women, heroes, streets,
wells, the departed”. For these subgroups, the following syllable count results:
4+4+6, 4+4+4, 4+4+4+5, 4+4+4+4, 4+5+5+6, 4+4+5+6+6. Cf. also Allon
1997: 48.
ĀGAMA AND AṄGA IN THE EARLY BUDDHIST ORAL TRADITION 19
37 For discussions of the significance of the nine aṅgas cf., e.g., Jayawickrama
1959, Kalupahana 1965, and von Hinüber 1994, and for a summary Anālayo
2011a: 150f.
38 According to Dutt 1957: 89, “the list [of aṅgas] … rests on an analysis of
different forms of composition found in the canon.” Jayawickrama 1959: 11
states that “it is a mere description of the literary types.” Kalupahana 1965: 616
similarly indicates that “this classification … does not refer to nine different
groups of literature, but to nine types of composition.” Ñāṇatiloka 1952/1988:
193 explains that the aṅga system “is a classification according to literary styles,
and not according to given texts.” Lamotte 1980: 2282 clarifies that the aṅgas are
not literary genres, but types of composition for forming texts, “ces Aṅga ne sont
pas des genres littéraires, mais simplement des types de composition concernant
la forme des textes.” Norman 1983: 16 points out that “despite the fact that books
called Jātaka, Udāna and Itivuttaka actually exist in Pāli, it is probable that the list
of nine aṅgas did not originally refer to specific works in the canon.”
20 ANĀLAYO
39 Cf., e.g., Adikaram 1946/1994: 27–32, Dutt 1978: 42, Endo 2003a and 2003b,
Goonesekera 1968: 689, and Mori 1990: 127.
40 Cf., e.g., Sp I 28,18.
For a survey of occurrences cf. Anālayo 2008a: 381f note 1.
41
ĀGAMA AND AṄGA IN THE EARLY BUDDHIST ORAL TRADITION 21
42 One of two examples to illustrate this type of usage can be seen when a
statement to be explained is introduced with the construction iti kho pan’ etaṃ
vuttaṃ, kiñc’ etaṃ paṭicca vuttaṃ, followed by concluding the explanation
with idam etaṃ paṭicca vuttaṃ, found, e.g., in MN 54 at MN I 361,1. Another
example can be seen when quotes are introduced by stating vuttaṃ kho pan’ etaṃ
bhagavatā, followed by concluding the quote with iti, a usage even employed by
the Buddha to quote himself, cf., e.g., MN 3 at MN I 13,11. On the use of iti in
commentarial literature cf. the study by Kieffer-Pülz 2014.
Cf. von Hinüber 1998: 187.
43
Such shorter listings of aṅgas are found in two Pāli discourses. One
of these occurs among the Fives of the Aṅguttara-nikāya. In the
passage in question, a Brahmin proclaims that one will no longer
be interested in the teachings of others once one has heard the
Buddha’s teaching in the form of sutta, geyya, veyyākaraṇa, and
abbhutadhamma. 45
45 AN 5.194 at AN III 237,17+23. Bodhi 2012: 1744 note 1196 comments that the
Brahmin protagonist, “for some reason, he cites only four of the nine divisions of
the Dhamma. Perhaps it was only these with which he was familiar” (this is one of
two possible explanations proposed by him). I take this to imply that, since in this
instance the speaker is neither the Buddha nor one of his well-known disciples,
the Brahmin protagonist of this discourse could perhaps on purpose have been
depicted as not fully versed with the whole set of nine aṅgas. In line with a general
tendency in the discourses to present Brahmins as particularly concerned with the
marvellous qualities of the Buddha, such as his physical marks, in this instance
he might presumably be shown to remember only abbhutadhamma out of the six
aṅgas mentioned usually after sutta, geyya, and veyyākaraṇa.
46 In reply to the hypothesis by von Hinüber 1994 that this passage points to an
early stage in the evolution of the aṅgas, Choong 2010: 60 argues that it is “likely
that the unique Pāli list of just four aṅgas … is, rather, an abbreviation of the entire
set of nine aṅgas in their original sequence; that is ‘sutta, geyya, veyyākaraṇa, …
abbhuta-dhamma’.” The idea that these four were an early division of the textual
material is also not easily reconciled with the problem I discussed above, in that
a reciter who specializes on marvels would have relatively little material to learn
and would moreover stand good chances to acquire an unbalanced understanding
of the teachings.
47 MN 122 at MN III 115,18. For a critical reply to the suggestion by Sujato
2005: 62 that Sanskrit fragments of the Mahāparinirvā-sūtra support the notion
of a special emphasis being accorded to the first three aṅgas cf. Anālayo 2011a:
698 note 69.
ĀGAMA AND AṄGA IN THE EARLY BUDDHIST ORAL TRADITION 23
52
Mayeda 1964: 26 and 34 and Nakamura 1980/1999: 28.
53 Another reference to three aṅgas can be found in Nett 78,9, which here
comprises sutta, veyyākaraṇa, and gāthā.
54 Lévi 1932: 161,8: sūtraṃ geyaṃ vyākaraṇam itivṛttam gāthodānam, evaṃ
navāṅgaśāsanaṃ (Kudo 2012: 106 reads evan instead of evaṃ).
55
Lalwani 1973: 177,14.
56 For a survey of the twelve aṅgas according to the Śvetāmbara Jain tradition
cf. Dundas 1992: 64f.
57 In relation to the hypothesis by von Hinüber 1994 that the listing of four aṅgas
reflects an early attempt at organizing the texts, Klaus 2010: 518 points out that
such hypotheses are not supported by the texts, which do not present the aṅgas
as an attempt at ordering the texts, but rather as attempts at classification or just
enumeration, “mir kommt es auf die Feststellung an, daß Vermutungen in diese
Richtung sich nicht an die Texte anknüpfen lassen. Die Texte präsentieren uns die
verschiedenen Aṅga-Listen nicht als Versuche, einen wie auch immer gearteten
Gesamtbestand an Texten zu ordnen, sondern als Versuche, die verschiedenen
Arten von Dhamma-Texten zu klassifizieren oder auch nur aufzuzählen.” Cousins
2013: 105 concludes that “short versions are sometimes interpreted as earlier lists
of ‘Aṅgas’, but that seems quite anachronistic to me.”
26 ANĀLAYO
58
AN 4.191 at AN II 185,7.
59
AN 5.155 at AN III 177,6.
60 AN 7.64 at AN IV 113,13; the same contrast recurs in Vibh 294,22 in terms of
dhammapaṭisambhidā and atthapaṭisambhidā.
61 MĀ 1 at T I 421a17, T 27 at T I 810a11, and EĀ 39.1 at T II 728c3. A Sanskrit
fragment parallel has preserved part of the listing of aṅgas; cf. SHT III 878 R4,
Waldschmidt 1971: 127.
ĀGAMA AND AṄGA IN THE EARLY BUDDHIST ORAL TRADITION 27
65
MĀ 200 at T I 764a14 and EĀ 50.8 at T II 813a16.
66
AN 4.6 at AN II 7,2; a distinction that recurs in Pp 62,33.
67 AN 4.102 at AN II 103,8 and AN 4.107 at AN II 108,3; the presentation in AN
4.107 recurs in Pp 43,29.
68 EĀ 25.10 at T II 635a10, which illustrates mere learning of the twelve aṅgas
with the same simile of a cloud that thunders but does not rain, found also in AN
4.102. Another parallel, EĀ2 10 at T II 877b10, also employs the same simile, but
does not mention the aṅgas. Here the one who is like a cloud that thunders but
does not rain learns the “discourses” but does not understand the Dharma himself.
69
AN 5.73 at AN III 86,25 and AN 5.74 at AN III 88,7.
ĀGAMA AND AṄGA IN THE EARLY BUDDHIST ORAL TRADITION 29
AN 4.186 at AN II 178,12.
70
twelve aṅgas ).
30 ANĀLAYO
Conclusion
The overall impression that suggests itself from the evidence
surveyed in this article is that an at first somewhat undifferentiated
body of discourses, the āgama (singular) developed into separate
āgamas (or nikāyas), a development which as far as we are able to
ascertain did not involve an intermediate period during which the
aṅgas fulfilled the purpose of forming textual collections. Instead,
the aṅgas appear to stand for textual types, for kinds of compositions,
and their main function as reflected in the early texts is to highlight
the importance of penetrative understanding of the meaning of the
teachings over mere rote learning of its different manifestations.
72 Cousins 2013: 106 sums up that “there is no indication anywhere that any of
this has anything to do with an arrangement of the canonical literature in some
kind of earlier recension.”
ĀGAMA AND AṄGA IN THE EARLY BUDDHIST ORAL TRADITION 31
Abbreviations
AN Aṅguttara-nikāya
D Derge edition
DĀ Dīrgha-āgama ( T 1)
Dhp Dhammapada
DN Dīgha-nikāya
EĀ Ekottarika-āgama ( T 125)
EĀ2 (partial) Ekottarika-āgama ( T 150A)
MĀ Madhyama-āgama ( T 26 )
MN Majjhima-nikāya
Mp Manorathapūraṇī
Nett Nettipakaraṇa
Pp Puggalapaññatti
Ps Papañcasūdanī
Q Peking edition
SĀ Saṃyukta-āgama ( T 99)
Sp Samantapāsādikā
T Taishō edition
Vibh Vibhaṅga
Vin Vinaya
Vism Visuddhimagga
73
Dhp 258.
32
References
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‘State of Buddhism in Ceylon as Revealed by the Pāli Commentaries
of the 5th Century A.D.’, Sri Lanka, Dehiwala: Buddhist Cultural
Centre
Eimer, Helmut 1983 (vol. 1): Rab tu ʼbyuṅ baʼi gźi. Die Tibetische
Übersetzung des Pravrajyāvastu im Vinaya der Mūlasarvāstivādins,
Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
von Hinüber, Oskar 1994: “Die Neun Aṅgas: Ein früher Versuch zur
Einteilung buddhistischer Texte”, Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde
Süd- und Ostasiens, 38: 121–135.